Downgrade
by QueenSkellington
Summary: Tony's thoughts as he stumbles for his life after Obadiah steals the Arc Reactor out of Tony's chest. Movieverse.


Obadiah. Obadiah. Obadiah. The name rang in my head like a swarm of bee's—insistent and painful. He'd been my father's business partner for so long, and then he'd been mine. I'd always thought he was there to help me, but he'd hated me, the whole time he'd hated me. And I'd been too stupid to know. I-er-I-…. Coherent thoughts started to evade me as blood circled the arc reactor which Obadiah had so happily stolen. Lazy son of a bitch.

I knew I could never last any longer than maybe fifteen, maybe twenty minutes without the arc reactor keeping the shards of metal out of my heart, and the device wore off in fifteen minutes. That _stupid _device had rendered me paralyzed, useless. No wonder it had never been approved! So many evil uses. If I had five minutes of mobility than… what could I do with those few minutes? Could I possibly save myself and save the world? How could I ever save my-

Another wave of nausea inducing pain crippled me and I bared my teeth in absolute pain. Damnit… um… think Tony, think. You made an advanced piece of technology out of scraps in a fucking cave but you can't figure this out in your own home? I needed something, a replacement, something to keep the metal at bay like the car battery had in the cave. Car Battery? I was sure I had some but there was no way I had the strength _or _mobility to get one, but it was the simplest solution!

_Simplicity…the answers that are the simplest are often very clever, they are also very often wrong._

My thoughts said calmly.

_But I __need__ simplicity! _

I growled back, trying to move an arm, a leg, or something. I flicked my eyes to the clock and found I had been paralyzed for eleven minutes; four minutes left… that meant I had nine minutes of life left to figure this out. Alright… strike the car battery idea. But what else could I possibly use? It's not like it's a cell phone, I can't just go and buy a new one, this is a one of a kind Arc Reactor. I couldn't just build a new one in five minutes it was impossible.

I closed my eyes tightly in pain, a headache swirling along terribly with the empty hole in my chest. I opened my eyes and racked them over the room. They came over the usual, all the things any normal person would have in their mansion, and then my eyes came to that one step. That step on the stairs where the previous one had broken and I hadn't had the time to fix it so I'd just put in a normal board, it stood out from the other sleek ones but when I _did _have the time, I no longer wanted to fix it. I'd felt it needed to be there.

I stared at the step. To fix it I had used an old board, a downgrade from the original metal board that had become warped. A downgrade… what was a downgrade from the Arc?

……

…….

_Pepper's present!!! You dolt!_

My conscience yelled at me. I grunted in response and thanked myself for that piece of insanity called a conscience that had suddenly appeared while I'd been in the cave for three months. I was surprised that I could now move. It hurt like hell, but I could move none the less. I pushed myself off of the couch but immediately stumbled wildly.

"Oh, hell." I grunted as I gripped the edge of the table roughly. My thoughts slapped around in my head like disjointed waves hitting a thousands rocks making it almost impossible for me to think coherently.

_The-the lab…_

_ Down grade…_

_ Lab…_

_ Lab…_

_ Arc Reactor in lab…_

_ Must go lab…_

My drowning conscience mumbled as the incoherency reached into my head. I stumbled drunkenly over to the stairs and stared at them. There was no way I would ever make the stairs.

"Uh uh." I mumbled and shook my head curtly once. Elevator. I stumbled over to the elevator pressing half of my weight into the wall. I slid across the wall to the doors of the elevator. I slammed my hand into the button and growled impatiently. I continued slamming my hand into the button over and over. My half functioning mind told me to keep slamming the button that it would somehow make it go to me faster.

_My god! There are only four floors! _

I growled as I continued punching and the door finally slid open. I raced in as fast as I possibly could in my impaired state. I leaned against one of the walls of the elevator and slammed the 'Lab' button. The doors slid closed and as I stood in the elevator I just wanted to sit down and… just… I don't even know. I just wanted to be… ok? No I hadn't been ok in so long, I didn't even know what 'ok' was. But when I'd started saving people, when I'd blown up things that had threatened innocent people…. I'd felt ok.

And it was a great felling when I came home and Pepper bit her lip in that way she always did when she was thinking or nervous or both. I felt ok then, but right now _I was not ok. _The doors slid open and I stumbled to the entry way and clutched at my chest as more pain rolled in. I could hear my heart beat with every definite pound. Like a clock, ticking out my last seconds. Where was the older version? My eyes scanned wildly over the room when I saw the glass case glitter.

Pain be damned, I went forward with all the strength I had in my almost empty supply. Important things bubbled up to the surface in my watery mind.

_Stark Industries _

_ Pepper_

_ Rhodes_

_ Pepper_

_ The fight on terrorism_

_ The world_

_ Pepper_

All were extremely good reason to live, all of them worth living for. And how I wanted to, how I wanted to live. But my strength failed me as I collapsed just a mere two feet from my goal. I reached forward for the closest thing to me, which my clouded mind couldn't identify but I knew it had wheels. I pushed forward on the cart and reached up. Inches. Mere Inches! I was so close but I failed. I fell to the ground my heart rate singing out in my ears in final definite thumps.

_Bum-bum_

_ Bum-Bum_

_ Live-live_

_ Live-live_

_ Tony-live_

I swore I could hear it, my heart encouraging me to live. But it was most likely a hallucination because of pain and well….dyeing. My eyes had apparently closed and I breathed in a defeated breath. Then I heard the whir of mechanism above me. I opened my eyes sleepily to see Butterfingers above me… holding the old Arc reactor. He handed it down to me and I took it weakly. I stared at the ring surrounding it:

_Proof that Tony Stark has a heart._

I nodded once, a small nod, so small it was almost useable. I did have a heart, a fucking _beating _heart. And I didn't plan to die soon.

"Good boy." I whispered up to Butterfingers and then I smashed the glass on the concrete.


End file.
